Alas, the seed experiment is a frugal flop

**daddys3chicks** · 05-17-2005, 07:45 PM

Well, I thought I would save tons of money this year by starting seeds indoors and transplanting them. I don't know if I waited too long or planted too soon, but pretty much all of my seedlings have died.

I still have my eight tomato plants, and I planted some seeds directly in the ground, but I am bummed.

I guess I will go and get some plants tomorrow so I can get my other veggies going.

Bah.

**forestdale** · 05-17-2005, 07:48 PM

awww cheryl, that's such a pain. Can you work out why they died? Lack of water? Too cold? I hope you can work out what happened so you can follow through on your plans if you want to plant seeds at a later date.

**daddys3chicks** · 05-17-2005, 07:52 PM

I don't know. They seemed healthy enough before I transplanted them, and they had been outside long enough to be tempered. It was very hard to get them out of the little pots though, so it may have been root damage.

**Kimberlina** · 05-17-2005, 09:51 PM

Did the leaves change color noticeably before they died? Perhaps a nutrient deficiency?

**daddys3chicks** · 05-18-2005, 06:41 AM

No, the leaves were green, they just wilted and died. I watered well, so I don't know.

**Kimberlina** · 05-18-2005, 11:34 AM

How big were the seedlings? Could it have been damping off?

**QuilterMom** · 05-18-2005, 11:51 AM

All mine died last year before it even came time to transplant them. Now I just plant the seeds directly in the raised beds and all has gone well so far.

**forestdale** · 05-18-2005, 03:43 PM

Cheryl, if every different type of seedling died then I think Kimber is right, it may have been damping off. That's caused by a fungal infection of your soil or pots. To prevent it happening you need to clean your seedling trays with a bleach and water solution. You also need to use pastuerised soil that has no fungal spores in it.

**daddys3chicks** · 05-18-2005, 05:24 PM

The trays I used were from Burpee as were the little peat pellets for starting. Strange.

**Kimberlina** · 05-19-2005, 12:13 PM

Damping off can still happen, particularly if the sedlings are kept very moist. If you start seeds next year (don't give up yet!!

) try putting a little fan on them. You will have to keep a closer eye on the moisture level, but it may just save all your little seedlings.

If I were you, I wouldn't consider this a failure. Hopefully, you will learn from this, and the money you saved on the tomato plants that survived probably makes up for what you spent on seeds (I hope- around here it is about $2.50 per tomato plant, so if you spent less than $20, your still in the black!)